2024 Year in Review
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Category Archives: Politics
The Vast Universe
George Carlin used to joke that humans are conceited fools regarding recycling and the Save the Planet movement. Here we are, on a little ball, floating around the sun for nearly 14 billion years, and we think the planet will be saved by recycling some plastic. The planet will be fine, he assures us. We’re fucked, but the planet will be fine.
For over 2.5 million years, when pondering our existence and asking the question, “What did we come from?” Man has looked skyward for answers. Surely, someone or some thing had to have created this. It’s a legitimate question. Could it be that we’re not much closer to an answer today than we were during the Stone Age?
Even with the sophistication of our modern scientific tools, the universe is still considered so vast that it stretches beyond the limits of human comprehension. Let’s start with the speed of light, which measures distances to everything else far away. The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second or roughly 671 million miles per hour. I can maybe start to visualize 671 mph, but not 671,000 mph, and certainly not 671,000,000 mph. For starters, that’s so fast it seems instant, and, from the human perspective, it is.
A light-year is approximately 5.879 trillion miles. Our Sun is 93 million miles away from Earth. Earth’s circumference is 24,901 miles. You would have to circumnavigate the globe 3,735 times to simulate traveling the distance from Earth to the Sun. Light (at 186,282 mps) takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to get from the Sun to Earth. Those rays that are tanning your backside — they left the Sun over 8 minutes ago.
Now try to wrap your head around some of these numbers
• Pluto, the farthest planet from the Earth in our solar system, is 3.3 billion miles from Earth (0.003561 light-years).
• Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to us, is 4.37 light-years away.
• The Milky Way Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light-years in diameter. So, if you were to travel at the speed of light (186,282 miles per second), it would take you 100,000 years to cross from one side of the Milky Way to the other. (587,900,000,000,000,000,000 miles).
• The Andromeda Galaxy is ~2.5 million light=years away (14,700,000,000,000,000,000 miles)
• The observable universe — the portion of the universe that we can see — is estimated to be about 93 billion light years in diameter (546,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles). This doesn’t mean that the universe is only 93 billion light-years across; it’s simply the part we can observe given the finite speed of light and the universe’s age (about 13.8 billion years).
• There are thought to be roughly 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe and 200 billion trillion stars (200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).
For all we know, the universe could be infinite. To George Carlin’s point, yes, we are an arrogant, conceited bunch of fools to think that the world revolves around us and that we have the slightest impact on anything in the big picture. Homo Sapiens have been in existence for only 5 million years. That’s a small fraction of the time we think we know about (~0.036% of the Earth’s 13.8 billion years), and we only developed the knowledge to discover that the Earth wasn’t flat a little over 500 years ago. A little perspective, please.
Sometimes, I think it would be helpful to have a map of the universe with a “==> You Are Here” arrow to show how insignificant we are in the scheme of things. Some of us think our brains are so advanced, our knowledge so deep, that we have all the answers, but a wise philosopher said it best 2,500 years ago.
“The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.”
— Socrates
The Bigger They Come The Harder They Fall
There’s been a ton of complaining on social media about how they are giving Trump a pass on so many missteps. He can slur his words telling lie after lie for 2 straight hours and the MSM, especially the NT Times will run an article tip-toeing around the elephant in the room. Given the disastrous agenda of the Republican party (with special praise for Project 2025 for putting it in writing), it’s hard to understand why he gets the velvet glove treatment for 9 straight years. One can only conclude that MSM benefits financially with a crazy guy in the news cycle 24/7. Us consumers are eating it up.
Having said that though, it’s also true that the MSM has a history of tearing celebrities down just as fast as they skyrocketed to the top. Take Sarah Palin for example. She was the everyday wonder woman after her nomination in 2012. Republicans were so excited to have a woman on the ticket, that is until it was exposed that she’s intellectually challenged. The movie Game Change sums it up best, but the stories that eventually leaked about how her handlers had to educate her every step of the way on basic things like geography said it all. It didn’t take long for her 15 minutes of fame to extinguish. Her attempt to run for a congressional seat in 2022 failed and now she can’t get a washing detergent commercial to save her life.
Similar stories are associated with other once famous celebrities: Ron DeSantis, Rod Blagojevich, John Edwards, Gary Hart, Rudy Giuliani, Bill Cosby, Mel Gibson, Roseanne Barr, Kevin Spacey, Dan Quayle and Paris Hilton. One minute you’re on top, the next you’re not. Just because you’re the media’s darling for a couple of news cycles doesn’t mean it will last forever. The media likes to sell copy — and nowadays that includes digital copy (clicks). If a story will sell, they will run with it.
As people start abandoning ship from Team trump, I predict the MSM is going to have an absolute field day with his sudden downfall and it will be magnificent to watch. I’ve been predicting for a couple of years now that the Trump story ends the same way as another cult ended in Oregon — with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh wheels up headed out of the country in a private jet. Time will tell and it’s possible it could even happen in the next 90 days.
Kamala and Coach, Keeping it Pithy
So far the transition from Biden to Harris has gone swimmingly. Record numbers of people are filling stadiums to listen to these great orators wax poetically about the type of future that is possible while giving Orange Jesus some of his own. Recall in 2016 Michelle Obama’s mantra “When they go low, we go high” and how well that didn’t work out for democrats. That’s because Trump is a different kind of animal. You gotta get down in the mud with him, but without using too many words. Keep it pity. Call republicans weird and tell them to mind their own damn business. Share a cartoon that exposes the stupidity and/or hypocrisy. I’ve been saving up images from social media and now seemed like a good time to share some of the better ones that send the message in the strongest possible way.
Cool Kids for Kamala
Trump, attention seeking whore that he is, from the very beginning has had a strategy (some would say a need) to always be in the news cycle, even if it was bad news. In 2016 he promised to build a great wall on the border with Mexico and that Mexico would pay for it. The media fell for it hook, line, and sinker and ran with this story for weeks, allowing him to hand-wave when pressed for details on how any of this might get accomplished. Once the hysteria died down over that canard, he had to come with another outrageous claim to get back in the news cycle. He said he would “ban all muslims” from coming to the United States. Regardless of how unlawful or impractical a solution appeared to be, the media took the bait and ran with it. Meanwhile the other republican candidates (all 17 of them) were trying to get in to the news cycle and couldn’t get any attention. He completely sucked all the oxygen from the room, meanwhile, coming up with clever nicknames for each opponent: ‘Lil Marco. Low-energy Jeb. Sleepy Joe, Crooked Hillary, Lyin’ Ted. It worked. I will give credit where credit is due. He’s good at it.
Fast forward 7 years to 2024 and Joe Biden has just pulled the rug out from under the republican presidential campaign by withdrawing from the race with just over 100 days to go and passing the torch to Kamala Harris. Democrats rally around this news with enthusiasm and hog the news cycle for 3 whole days. All the cool kids are joining in and republicans are freaking out. It turns out Kamala is popular after all, especially with voters under 35. Now we just need to make sure they get out and vote.
I cannot wait to see what outrageous, bizarre move comes out of the Trump campaign next. It’s coming, we just don’t know what it is yet. He simply cannot stand to not be the center of attention. I’m anxiously waiting 3, 2, 1…
The Besmirch Strategy
If it worked before maybe it will work again?
One can’t argue with the fact that the Benghazi hearings were wildly successful at smearing Hillary Clinton in 2016. Such a large dose of media attention focused on questioning Secretary Clinton’s motives and competence did real damage to her campaign and allowed the media to “both sides” two candidates, even though one of them had been caught on tape bragging about being able to grab women by their private parts because he’s a celebrity.
The republicans aren’t all stupid but after the unanimous impeachment inquiry vote it would appear they are desperate. So desperate that they realize their one and only chance at reclaiming the White House is to implement Benghazi 2.0 in the form of making up conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden. It’s a Hail Mary if there ever was one but it’s all they have.
I’d like to predict an embarrassing failure but 2016 has taught me that we can’t trust the media to not “both sides” issues like this one. Instead we have to rely on getting out the vote in record numbers.
Rob The Plumber
With Joe Biden joining the picket line with union workers in Michigan recently it appears that the tide may be turning with regards to the union vote. Even though Reagan did all he could to bust unions back in the 1980’s it seemed like the Republicans somehow successfully stole the support of union members and it’s stayed that way. Until now.
Recall that in his 2008 presidential campaign John McCain successfully made a connection with the labor movement by trying to help “Joe the Plumber.” Joe was your average private business owner out there trying to scratch his way to the American Dream and finding it difficult. McCain was there to help and it provided a boost to his campaign. The average “Joe” connected with the idea.
Given that unions are making a comeback and republicans are no where to be found for support, I came up with a novel idea for democrats to latch onto for 2024.
My son Rob is a 2nd year plumber apprentice. He too is out there trying to make some scratch towards the American Dream and he’s a proud union member, solid democrat and about as anti-MAGA as a person can be. Maybe Biden should latch onto this idea and mimic McCain’s successful attempt at connecting with the working class. It’d be fun to turn the tables on those guys.
Tennis A Go-Go
Perhaps the funniest thing my cousin Mike Eady has ever written. Fortunately I remembered to ask him to send me a copy recently because I couldn’t find the old one – which is why it’s in scanned .pdf format.
Well, That’s a Setback To My Narrative
Suppose that you entered a golf tournament and did pretty well, winning the front nine by one stroke but lost the overall championship by four strokes. Suppose further that you felt your opponent to be an inferior golfer who didn’t have as many followers on the course as you did. There’s just no way this guy could have beaten you.
Then suppose that you raise holy hell with the tournament officials about how the other guy had to have cheated to win. You assert your opponent took birdies on holes he bogied. That he had a secret deal with the greenskeepers to move the flag to a tougher position when you played the hole. That he had someone steal your ball on the 16th fairway in order to jigger your score on the back nine.
Your large following of supporters agree with you that this absolutely has to be true and put pressure on tournament officials to review the tapes to stop the steal of the tournament.
The tournament officials then agree to review the tapes and find no evidence of cheating on your opponent’s part. Your supporters then claim that the tournament officials are in on the fix and order an investigation of the investigation.
Then suppose that the very investigation you ordered shows that not only did you lose the tournament, you cheated on the front nine by having your caddie pay a woman in a tank top $130k to flash her bare chest at your opponent right before he addressed his ball on the first hole. Not only did you not win the back nine, YOU cheated on the front nine.
That’s how Donald J. Trump feels right now.
Republican “Priorities”
In the words of the oft colorful Jeff Tiedrich, Republicans appear to have their priorities upside down. As it turns out real problem is that they are bought off by the gun lobby who rakes in billions on gun sales, (even more-so after a mass shooting at a school), but be that as it may, I felt his observations are worthy of being repeated here, and I love the fact that he even provided links to actual examples.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from learning that Rosa Parks was black that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from seeing that Michaelangelo’s David has a penis that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from finding out that men can love men and women can love women that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from being read to by grownups wearing costumes that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from eating a subsidized school lunch that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from reading that Roberto Clemente experienced discrimination that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from discovering why Anne Frank had to hide that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from knowing how their own bodies work that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
Republicans were so busy protecting children from having access to healthcare that they forgot to protect them from being murdered in their classrooms.
View from my PDX Window 